Insurance Automation & its Key Benefits

The insurance industry is becoming more digitised as more and more policies are sold online. The majority of users run an online search before scheduling any appointments or requesting a quote. Insurance is one of the most competitive industries and automation is one of the tools that can help you to stay ahead of the competition.

This article will cover the benefits of insurance automation and how to use it to generate outstanding results effectively.

What is insurance automation?

Insurance automation is a tool that is used to accelerate and streamline internal and external processes and communication. Automation uses triggers to set up a personalised email and SMS marketing workflow. These events are usually triggered by users’ behaviour and actions, such as purchasing, subscribing, or clicking on a link in an email. 

With automation in place, you will be able to send policy renewals, quotes and much more with minimal effort and keep your subscribers engaged.

Circulator’s journey builder makes automation simple and increases your team’s efficiency and productivity.

Benefits of using automation for insurance companies

There are several benefits of using automation for your insurance business and it is becoming a standard in the industry. Below you can find examples of the most common benefits.

1) Reduce operating costs and time

One of the biggest benefits of using automation is lowering operating costs. Following up with your customers and handling processes manually can be exhausting and cost-demanding. 

With automation in place, there is no need to have a team member focusing on clients’ renewal reminders or sending quotes. Instead, it can be simply managed by automation software, and your team will have more time to focus on overall strategy and marketing activities. Therefore, not only will your cost reduce but also the productivity of your team will improve significantly, as it is estimated that insurance automation can cut down the time necessary for processes by 50%.

2) Prevent data loss

Manual handling can cause many errors and eventually lead to data loss. Automation can prevent all these issues, in addition to reducing costs, and providing a more secure solution for your business. 

3) Improve customer experience

With the increasing competition in the insurance industry, it is essential to engage with your customers and leads and provide them with the best possible service. 

Automation reduces your overall cost and time spent on communication with your customers and leads and eliminates any manual data handling, thus eliminating any potential errors or data loss. Which can significantly improve your customer service and satisfaction through reliable automation. 

4) Scale your marketing strategy

Manual sending limits the number of customers you can reach. However, with automation, you can create an entire journey and send relevant communications to your customers based on their actions. Your customers' behaviour will give a signal to your system, which will automatically send the right message at the right time without any additional effort. 

How to use automation in the insurance business?

Data transfers

Having integrated systems and automating data transfers is key and the first step to increasing productivity. As mentioned previously, automated data transfers can eliminate the occurrence of human error and accelerate your processes. 

Automated data and file transfers can be set up by IT teams using scripting and command lines to schedule or automate tasks for FTP servers. But the easiest way to set up data transfers is to use automation software. Circulator provides advanced data transfer solutions suitable for any business and integrates with any software. 

Email insurance automation

Email automation is very common in the insurance industry and generates outstanding results for agents and companies. 

Below you can find several examples of email insurance automation with a brief explanation. 

Policy renewals

Policy renewals are among the most effective automated emails for insurance agents and are frequently used in the industry. You can create an automation to remind your customer of policy renewals. These can be set up as a series of emails a month, week or a few days before the renewal date. 

Quote

Quote is usually the first point of communication with your customers. You should collect users’ email addresses during the quotation process and send the quote by email. This will increase your chances of a successful completion even if they do not purchase immediately. You can also set up an automated follow-up email with a quote reminder.

The automation can be also set as a series of chase emails scheduled a few days apart. Remember, users can easily miss your message in their inboxes. Therefore, the more you follow up, the higher the chance will be of a successful conversion. However, don’t overdo it! Following up two to three times should be enough.

Quote abandonment

This applies to a situation when a user starts the quotation process and provides you with an email address, but does not complete it. There can be several reasons for a user not completing the quote, but a quote abandonment email gives you an opportunity to recover these lost quotes/sales. These automated emails have the potential to generate up to 10% of lost sales.

Credit control

Suppose a user applies for an insurance policy but doesn’t complete the purchase. In that case, you still have the opportunity to remind them with an automated message so that you do not have to track incomplete payments but instead let the system do the work for you. 

Email is one of the most effective tools for credit control as approximately 80% of unpaid invoices can be successfully collected by email chasing alone.

Read more about how can credit control automation help your insurance business.

Post-purchase campaigns

Post-purchase campaigns normally consist of a series of automated emails that all together create a flow. You can also use triggers based on users’ clicks and behaviour, and the system will automatically decide which message should follow or when the flow should stop.

The flow can be built as follows:

Below you can find a brief explanation of each email within the flow:

Purchase confirmation

It is an automated email triggered by a policy purchase and is normally sent immediately after the purchase. These emails should include all important information and additional documents. 

Review request

A few days after a confirmation email you can follow with a review request. This can help you build a better relationship with your existing customers and positive reviews can also help to acquire new ones.

Cross-sell

If customers trust you with one product, why not offer them more? People often prefer being insured by one company for several products simply because it makes their life easier. With automation software, you can easily segment your list based on purchased policies and cross-sell other products. An example of a popular cross-sell automation is Home x Motor.

Upsell

Upsell campaigns are similar to cross-sell with the difference of selling the same product with more advanced features. Upsell campaigns can also be combined with policy renewals, when a renewal date is coming, it is a great opportunity to offer advanced features and policies to your customers.

These examples are explained more in detail in our complete email marketing guide for insurance companies.

SMS automation

SMS automation works on the same principle as email automation. People are generally more receptive on mobile devices. SMS open rate is around 99% as people’s inboxes get less overwhelmed. SMS communication might also look more genuine to users if you use personalisation. It gives users the feeling of communicating with a person, which is an unquestionable advantage.

SMS can also be useful for ad hoc marketing messages such as seasonal emails and product updates. However, automation prevails when it comes to the insurance business. SMS automation is mostly used for renewal and payment reminders

SMS and email marketing work well together, and they often complement each other. You can create powerful automation consisting of both tools or give users an option to choose a preferred type of communication. After a user makes their choice, an automated message should follow.

It is also a common practice to give users an option to call you back after sending a message. Potentially, if you were given consent, you can follow up with a phone call as well.

Example of SMS automation:

Circulator also offers its clients advanced SMS marketing and automation services to help them achieve the best results.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you’re looking for assistance with email, SMS and process automation for your insurance business or have any other questions. Our team will be happy to assist you.

You can also visit our blog for more tips for insurance brokers.